


Tutoring

by Chibitami



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Dorky Angel, Gen, How Do I Tag, Platonic Relationships, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 06:51:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20671109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibitami/pseuds/Chibitami
Summary: Six has been trying to teach Niner to read for a while now.(Niner is NOT my OC. He comes from a fantastic mod that you can download on the Nexus!)https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/48002?tab=description





	Tutoring

“C’mon Six,” Niner groaned, “Can’t we take a break?” He tossed aside a torn and dirt-stained magazine, rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “We’ve been at this for hours and my head feels like it’s gonna explode. And for once it isn’t because I’m coming offa something.” 

Six picked up the magazine and gingerly placed it back on the table in front of Niner, and crossed her arms with a small huff. “Oh please, we’ve been at this for ten minutes,” she replied indignantly. She pushed the magazine in front of her companion and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Look, I know it’s hard, but you told me you wanted to learn how to read. And I told you it would be long and arduous, but that I’d help you stick to it because I’m your friend, and--”

“And I told you I don’t know what the fuck arduous meant,” Niner said snarkily. He looked down at the magazine and started tracing the letters on the cover with his finger. “Maybe I need something like a, uh, study aid.” He glanced at Six’s backpack, stuffed to the gills with ammo, food, medicine, and the junk she collected. “You got any Mentats in there? Betcha I could read this whole thing front to back with a tab or two.” He smirked. “Or one of your long books, like the one with the Russian name--Tolstoyeffsky.”

Six shook her head. “If children can learn to read without Mentats, you can too,” she replied firmly. “You’re already smart, Niner. It just takes time to learn how to read.” She opened the magazine to the page he had been working on earlier. “Just try to read one sentence, and then I won’t ask you to read or write anything else for the rest of the day.”

Niner raised an eyebrow. “You promise?” he asked incredulously. Six was a good friend, but god damn if it didn’t feel like she was a teacher straight from before the War sometimes. She tried to make learning fun for him, though; the first words he learned to read were from sounding out the labels on canisters of Jet, syringes of Psycho, and on the containers of all of the drugs in his stash. Then they upgraded to reading the labels on whiskey and beer, and then the labels and serial numbers on their guns and other weapons. Still, it was weird to crack skulls and get wasted with someone who gives you homework every day.

Six nodded. “I promise,” she said with a warm smile. “And as a bonus, I’ll do night watch for the first night once we get on the road again. You can sleep as much as you want!” She tapped the magazine’s title. “You don’t even need to do a full sentence; just sound out the title, and I’ll let you go.” Her index finger moved to the first paragraph.

Niner peered down at the black-and-white letters on the page. “Alright,” he said with a yawn. “The title says…” He stared down at the first cluster of letters on top of the page in large red print. “Us tur-oops--wait, shit, the dots make it different...US troops...ass-oo-ault...unarm-ed--unarmed kit-izens pro-testing ex-treem ra-tee-ons and ex-kess-ive forkey.” 

“Remember, sometimes ‘c’ makes a ‘k’ sound,” Six reminded softly. She hovered over a few words in the title. “Like here. It’s ‘citizens’ and ‘excessive force’.”

Niner frowned. “Well how the hell are you s’posed to know what sound it is?” he grumbled. 

“English is stupid like that sometimes,” she replied nonchalantly with a shrug. “It depends on what language the word comes from.”

“Oh.” Niner was quiet for a moment. “I’m not gonna have to learn a bunch of languages just to read shit, am I?” His eyes widened at the prospect of more ‘homework’. 

Six chuckled and shook her head. “No, you don’t have to,” she replied. “I don’t know enough in any other language to be a good teacher.” Her attention turned back to the title. “Try and sound it out a little faster, so the letters and words flow together and it’s easier to understand.”

Niner looked down at the title. “U.S. troops...ass-oo-ault--” He stopped. “Wait, ‘assault’! Like what the NCR soldier boys say when you beat the shit outta someone.” He looked down at the word. “Huh, seems like a really fancy word when it’s written out like that.” He continued reading. “U.S. troops assault unarmed...citizens protesting ex-treme rat-ee-ons--”

“You’re doing great so far,” Six said earnestly, “But that word is pronounced differently. It’s ‘rations’, with a ‘shhh’ sound in the middle.”

“T-I-O making a ‘shhh’ sound?” Niner asked incredulously. “Betcha anything that the language this one comes from was full of drunks that slurred everything they said.” He rolled his eyes and continued. “Protesting extreme rations and eks-ess-ive force.” He raised an eyebrow and looked over at Six. “How was that?”

Six grinned widely and clasped her hands together. “It was great,” she said excitedly. “Your pronunciation was almost flawless after just two tries! And the only words that gave you trouble were ones you hadn’t seen before.” She closed the magazine and placed it in a spare bit of space in her backpack. She turned back to Niner, still beaming with pride. After a second of silence, she wrapped her arms around him a small, quick hug and let out a small squeal. “Aaaahh, you just read your first sentence!”

Niner was surprised by the sudden affection, and he froze for a few seconds before awkwardly returning the hug with a pat on Six’s back. “Ah, it was nothing,” he replied, sounding uncharacteristically bashful. “Yeesh, I forgot how clingy you get when you’re happy about somethin’...” 

Six released Niner from her affectionate grasp and settled onto the stained couch in the apartment they were squatting in. “Well, I’ll hold up my end of the deal and leave you be,” she said. She rummaged around in her pack and pulled out one of her books; the pages were yellowed, and she had been carrying around for so long that the spine was starting to fall apart. The Courier curled up onto the couch and began reading silently, and Niner lay down on the floor near her. He grabbed a pillow off of the couch and rested it under his head.

“Actually,” Niner said, “Can you read your book to me?”

Six raised her eyebrows. Niner actually wanted to hear her read to him? She had assumed he wouldn’t want to be within fifty feet of a book after straining so hard to finish reading the magazine. “Um, sure,” she replied questioningly. “Mind if I ask why?”

Niner gave her a cheeky grin. “I wanted to take a nap, and most of the books you like seem boring. Figured you could lull me to sleep.”

Six rolled her eyes and threw one of the remaining pillows at him. “You are such an ass,” she replied, turning to the beginning of the story. “Okay, chapter one…”


End file.
